Escapade

2 - The Longstanding Rivalry

Sometimes War questioned why the universe loves to mess with his fate. It was 7 a.m. on Saturday, instead of longing around in his apartment, War was called in for an emergency meeting with one of his client. He was exhausted for staying up late finishing one drawing yesterday and his favorite coffee shop was still closed when he dropped by this morning. War, already grumpy and sleepy with lack of caffeine in his system, thought he could push through this meeting with willpower alone but oh boy he was so wrong.

"Good morning, Anan", War greeted with reluctant smile when his client introduce him to the person that he had known for years.

"Good morning, Khun Wanarat", the taller man greeted him while eyeing War, "I see you're still not a morning person"

War intensely cursed his fate in his head for ruining his weekend by making him dealing with this man and then cursed it again for the upcoming headache that would definitely come.

"You two know each other? As expected na, top professionals would know each other", the client said, oblivious of the thick tension shared between the two.

"I've known Khun Wanarat since I was in college", the man said with such a professional smile that War had known far too well was just an act, "He is indeed the best in his field", Yin eyed the smaller man.

"Oho, what an honor to be complimented by the famous daring CEO. I am indeed the best in my field", War confidently said, "You're not so bad yourself", War said with the tone that he knew would get under the man's skin and enjoyed seeing how the smile flattered for a moment on his face.

"I certainly did the right thing for hiring you two. I want to hear more, but we have project to discuss. Come, come", their client ushered them to his meeting room.

While the client got excited to hear the story about them, War just put his 'nod and smile' mode on as he really didn't have spare energy to deal with this anymore. He followed the two of them into the meeting room and sighed, already accepting his fate.

Yin Anan Wong, people know him as the daring young entrepreneur. He was praised for his instinct and vast knowledge in technology that had effectively saved his family's company. He was just barely 22 when he got handed a near bankrupt company and revived it. Now, as a 25 years old, he leads one of the most advanced and cutting-edge technology company that was often trusted to execute big projects.

War had to admit that the younger man was an impressive individual in so many ways and respect him as a professional in his field, but for some reasons, War just couldn't stand being in a close vicinity with Yin.

War still remembers where this all began, six years ago when War was a third year in college. He remembers being chosen to be in a team, designing an anti-earthquake building for a competition. His university was a longstanding champion and of course they were expected to take home the gold medal again that year. After all, their team consist of the best architecture and civil engineer students, including War. However, they ended up finishing in second place with a very close score. The university that beat them was one of their rival indeed and that year they boasted how they were so lucky to get 'the first year genius' in their team. It's frustrating to be defeated when you were expected to win but to War it was still an honorable defeat.

War was curious about this 'first year genius' that the other team had been bragging about and he found out he wasn't even from architecture or civil engineering major. He was a freshman of computer engineer major. Apparently their rival uni tried different approach than past years and use hi-tech building method to solve problm because they have the brain to figure it out for them. At that time War actually felt fine they lost because they lost by a really tight point difference, until he wasn't anymore.